German russian x. Ray telescope took off from by canoe or in the summer of 2019 for many scientists the launch was the fulfillment of a dream. Now comes the next successful step even as it is on track and training its 7 cameras on the cosmos. Over the next 4 years the telescope is to create a map of all the known galaxies researchers hope to find clues as to why our universe continues to expand. The. This is the world as we know. But as we zoom out to earth looks a lot smaller. Its just one of many planets that orbit the star at the center of our solar system the sun. And its just one of the 300000000000 stars that make up our galaxy the milky way. And much in taking a galaxy the size of ours and shrinking it to the sides of our brain isnt something cosmologist york invalid dreams about. Because the distances are unimaginable despite that we can look out so far with our telescopes that we are able to get a good idea of how the universe as a whole behaves and thats fascinating. In some ways the universe can be compared to a loaf of raisin bread. The raisins that contains the galaxies. When you bake the dough on foot to raise and start off close to each other. Then when the bread begins to rise in the oven the raisins start to drift apart the distance between them gets bigger but. Its a similar story with our universe its expanding and at an ever increasing speed in the process hundreds of billions of galaxies are moving away from each other. And that poses an enigma what force is driving this expansion physicists call it dark energy it can be compared to the rising agent in our loaf of the universe and agent that seems to be growing stronger. To shed light on the matter cosmologists measure x. Ray radiation from distant galaxies but as even the glow of an entire galaxy can be too weak to detect they look at clusters. Lets think about this raisin as a galaxy again for us galaxies are like light. We can observe them from incredible distances vic and with the help of galaxies we can to some degree measure the extent of the universe. A new instrument for detecting. The light those galaxies amiss if the evil telescope shown here shortly before it was launched. Instead of using lenses evos each that collects light by a gold plated tubular mirrors. X. Rays coming from the side of the tube and they bounce about of this tube and so in this way they can be seen one point of telescope through and so we build many many of these. We combine them together and this is our telescope that can see the. Universe and the distant 3 since. The challenge for its designers was to build an instrument thats tough enough to withstand the unshielded impact of cosmic rays yet still be incredibly precise and dependable even if both. Now are one and a half 1000000 kilometers away from earth its begun the task of mapping the cosmos in on president to detail. Even azita is part of the largest joint german russian scientific project to date pay to play deal is the mission scientific director we caught up with him via skype at his office in munich to ask him what have you learned from the 1st images sent back by eve receipt or. What weve learned is that it is a lot better than anything previously available. I just have to post a bit. Why do you want to scan the entire sky. Just like we want to understand how nature works here on earth astrophysicists want to understand how the universe works. We dont know everything yet there are various methods that you can use to learn more and one is using an x. Ray telescope to look at the entire skies. Are you sleeping better. Now that even is it a has been successfully deployed ready. Well obviously i hope that those sleepless nights are now over and we can relax. But even once a telescope is in outer space you can still have things go wrong. Cosmic radiation can cause malfunctions you could even have a micrometeorite collide with a telescope and caused damage. You just never know. But i would assume that we have now overcome the biggest hurdles. Pay to pay dear thanks for talking to us. In the coming years even as these he may reveal some of the deepest secrets of the cosmos we can hardly wait. Nicholas casey when yoda a viewer in zambia was wondering about another space secret and sentenced this question. To aliens exist. The night skies led the ancient greeks to philosophize about the existence of life elsewhere in the cosmos. The 16th century italian thinker Giordano Bruno postulated that the universe was infinite and full of life his many on orthodox views made him suspect and he was burned at the stake for heresy. Advances in science produce new theories about alien life forms perhaps there were intelligent civilizations with highly developed technology able to settle throughout our galaxy but if thats the case then where are they all that was the question posed by physicist enrico fermi in 1950 known as the family paradox it prompted a new push to clarify once and for all whether aliens exist 10 years later the search for extraterrestrial intelligence or seti got underway its search for radio transmissions from space efforts are continuing but so far without success. Some warn against seeking to make contact with alien life forms saying they might want to plunder earths Raw Materials in view of what we know so far thats unlikely. Highly sensitive telescopes have it best discovered only the Building Blocks of life and space. In the vicinity of young stars organic compounds have been found such as methanol and simple sugars along with mork. Plex molecules that are important for the formation of proteins. Our galaxy alone is home to up to 300000000000 stars many are similar to our sun and our orbited by planets. Among them scientists have even identified the earth like planets that could be habitable. In our solar system too there are places that could sustain life like on enceladus one of saturns moons its icy surface conceals an ocean that regularly shoots out plumes of water and space. Theyre reminiscent of the hot springs in our oceans that maybe the sites where microscopic life originated and microbes are likely to be the 1st form of extraterrestrial life that we track down in space though it may take us a few more decades yet. Developed what is read write a lot of it. Do you have a science question that youve always wanted answered it were happy to help out send it to us as a video text ovoid smell if we answer it on the show well send you a little surprise as a thank you can all just ask. Youll find us online at www dot com slash science or get in touch on twitter or facebook. This is not a hike in the mountains its the funeral of a glacier and the ice and the all clay shell was once a thick dome of ice now its almost all gone glaciers are melting all over the world theres been drastic lacelle retreat in the arctic the southern and eastern and alaska over a period of 55 years the world lost over 9000000000 tons of glacier ice and the melting. Is accelerating in many places including the. Glaciers are an important source of water especially in long dry summers many rivers receive huge amounts of water from areas covered by clay shares. Water that allows river life to continue to flourish. And farmers to keep their crops irrigated. But the glaciers are steadily shrinking studies suggest that by the end of the century only a few could remain rivers would no longer benefit from their melt water in summer. An alarming prospect that prompted swiss glaciologists daniel far enough to to undertake a study thats got a lot of people talking. In the future the glaciers wont be where they are now because theyre receding so in our study we place the virtual dam at the point where the glacier currently ends thats controversial and were not saying its necessarily a good idea we just wanted to find out whether this is an option that warrants further study. The dam reservoirs would basically mimic the glaciers. They would store up water in winter and spring and release it in summer when its needed. This is what the flow of water from glaciers in the alps looks like today. The amount of melt water reaches its peak in august. And this is how it would look by the end of the century if the glaciers are gone with more water than before in spring and less in summer. But damn could hold back the water earlier in the year and release it in the dryer months it could certainly benefit many. Firstly we humans would benefit the various economic entities that depend on water. Hydroelectric power farming accent or a. But the big beneficiary that we were thinking of is the ecology of plants and animals. Dam walls in the alps could mean a 1000000000 cubic metres of water from melting snow being held back and then released in summer. The scientists calculated that a dozen such reservoirs would be needed in the european alps all the water from areas currently covered by glaciers could then be pumped to these areas it would change the landscape which the scientists agree is problematic and what of the ecological risks. Were talking about areas that are currently covered by glaciers. Once the glaciers are gone. There wont be that much biodiversity in these areas. So basically theyll just be rock legend. Or so our line of argumentation was that you would probably do less damage by flooding news areas than if you place the forest or some other area under water. Building reservoirs in europe a controversial part experiment on how to prevent summer droughts if the glaciers disappear. Ultimately were all likely to feel the effects of Climate Change no matter where we live. We asked you on facebook is Climate Change already apparent where you live and if so how. Soon might be from indonesia writes that the dry season seems much longer october is already over and it still hasnt rained. Its a rather reports that farmers in mexico are seeing far fewer insects and that its more difficult to predict the start and end of the rainy season. Henry a farmer in cameron says people dont know when to plant their crops anymore peace 40 years old and thinking of going back to university for environmental study. Hes good luck if you do so and thanks for writing. Help to slow down Climate Change after all chance take up c o 2 from the yes. But even if we plant trees now it will still take decades to remove significant amounts of c o 2 from the atmosphere. So the effects on the climate wont be felt directly ready but leaving plants can be beneficial in other ways especially in big cities ready. Greenery make cities more appealing but it also serves a practical purpose. Meteorologist and geographer you are in fall man is an expert on urban climates and air quality. Why misinterpret it so much trees clearly play an Important Role in cities on the one hand they have a cooling effect its generally warmer in cities because there are more Paper Services and less of operation are trees have a cooling effect on their immediate surroundings because of the water that reparations from them. And they also have a filtering effect due to particles collecting on their leaves. Trees turn c o 2 into oxygen through the process of photosynthesis. So trees can greatly benefit the urban climate thanks both to their cooling effect or thermal effect under cars they improve air quality 23rd suspect. You are in fall man and his colleagues that mines university have been examining the effect of trees on air quality in cities their computer simulations show that the impact is not always positive. Well in terms of air quality its important to think carefully about which trees need to be planted where for example a sycamore is not suited to business traits because of the non children oxide produced by traffic which the tree interacts with to produce ozone. But sycamores are common in german cities they cope well with dry weather in the summer and are low maintenance. So what other trees are beneficial to the local climate. Thats what scientists at the university of applied sciences in being and are trying to find out in the institutes rooftop garden. Theyre using a special gas measurement device to gauge how different plants alter air quality. Once the bell jar closes over the poppy plant the researchers can evaluate its potential. And here is what they discovered. The c. B. D. So cycles i can see there is a reduction in Carbon Dioxide concentration so underneath the glass dome the plant starts to photosynthesize very actively and c o 2 absorption is much higher than c o 2 emissions from the ground. In other words the party is compensating for emissions from the ground that means that the complex of plantain substrate is protective rather than harmful to the environment. Poppies would seem to be a promising option. The scientists and begin are also investigating efficient Irrigation Systems even abundant greenery will die if it doesnt get enough water. Out here for our projects are designed to show how little effort is required to ensure that a roof garden flourishes in the long term so that the idea is for the plants to be environmentally beneficial arms low maintenance while also taking up a minimum of space. Constantino whom our work for the very in center for applied Energy Research inverts book which is developing new ideas about green 1st starts. Keeping the facades irrigated is a lot more complicated than watering balcony plants installing as in the 1st place is also hard. But they do have a range of benefits. We can completely cover for signs with greenery even on troll buildings so we can create a fully green surface on a tower block thats over 20 meters tall. It is of us on the clinical stock and thats without taking up extra space in a dense urban environment just put in theres a lot of potential in germany. And we have millions of square meters of building facades that could be grained from the conditions for virtual greening are in place. But the costs involved pose something of an obstacle. To make sure its worth the investment the scientists are documenting the potential benefits of Green Facades for buildings. Using a purpose built chamber they measure the relative advantages of the process for example could it which is heating costs. I know what its hard to speak with the greening system itself has an insulating effect a combined effect of technology and substrates. Because the plants grow outwards they keep the wind off the building and that means theres an additional insulating effect and it was attributed to him good. So getting more green into our asphalt jungle is an investment in the future. The writing left behind by the ancient egyptians is still valuable today and readable written in stone then knowledge has lasted through the millennia what libraries also store ideas for the ages in the form of books knowledge is available to future generations. That was about digital data storage media they can store more information than ever before but their comparatively short lifespan is a problem. When you can no longer access important data its time to call the salvage experts today vito bush is working on an old data cartridge sent in by the Swiss Post Office its thought to contain the specs from a special edition stamp issued in 1996 they all say theres more to drive still works but i cant say yet whether it will get any its the growth im pretty optimistic though the thing to recover the data bush uses devices that belong to the collection of the enter Computer Museum in switzerland. It is who can accelerate that somehow if it doesnt work i have to reboot. Now i should be able to eject it. The computer expert began rescuing data from old systems 8 years ago and he knows more about discontinued systems than pretty much anyone else out there and i think whats one hold on it is working. On a log is really the best thought in all of the film always still have a film on them if theyve been stored properly. Logged it with the or video is magnetic and not gets lost over time. And it trying to get data storage devices today are made to save things for the next 50 years so its part of. The evolution of Data Storage Technology has been accompanied by 2 opposing tendencies the older the data carrier the longer it will in general work but Storage Capacity in those devices is always relatively low. By contrast modern storage formats can pack a huge amount of data into a fraction of the space that data is stored long term on flash drives or s. D. Cards generally corrupt within just a few years. The one thing you can count on in the computer industry is that yesterdays cutting edge product will tomorrow look like it came from the digital stone age. Were it not for dedicated collectors like felix couldnt old hardware like this would disappear pretty swiftly with disastrous consequences. Valuable data is irretrievable without the right systems. And usually the power of the data storage medium itself of course has to be intact. Then you need a device thats able to read that media. Person. Need an operating system that works with that device. Despite all these difficulties the team at the Computer Museum and generally able to reconstruct data believed to have been lost forever. Im placing the punched tape in the device every line is one byte on the one hand its printed out here on the other its being transferred onto a modern computer so that we can save it onto a u. S. B. Stick the use of the. Cooption yourselves the more. The advantage is that the punched tape doesnt tear and the data will survive for hundreds of years and wont be automatically deleted. But if we wanted to save this entire memory stick on tape like this youd need approximately 320000. 00 rolls that would add up to 10 tons of paper and enormous amount. Of. Data salvage experts told bush has now cracked his problem hes managed to reconstruct the historically valuable data about the swiss stamp and saved it on a modern computer much to the relief and satisfaction of his client which just quotes on their office and. How long will it be before the meat we eat is grown in the lab. Next time well be looking at culture. Join us for that on tomorrow today. Some of. The artists. Want our oscar winning director carlo. Her film to go straight to viewers heart because she shows the old mans eyes the buckeye enjoy come and sing our society the true children its great fun. Spotlight all our lino me. Any injury march 21. Coming up on w. You ready for bed. Outs. Would you like a piece of shoulder. That Cake International the baked goodies are more than mere tasty desserts merry artists from all over the world come here to compete and one of the top makers shows us the world see. Your moments of. 30 minutes on d w. Y subscribe to do you know where your books dont meet your favorite writer right. But i want is to sure where to find beautiful. Books on you tube. Its a deadly sin. And the whim of nature. It motivates us. And fr